Do you sell rooms on Hotels.com, Expedia etc etc?

[egoodell]

I am a member at the moment but not sure if I will stay a member.
I paid a pretty penny for membership and never received guests from that page. I always ask my guests how did they hear about us?
Then I signed up for online rez, listings with Hotels.com, etc....
So far I had 3 bookings with one cancellation.
What I did not like is the same as everyone else...no info on the guest.
The last couple I had they thought we were a Hotel and treated us as such, including leaving masses of Garbage besides the garbage can in the kitchen...the usual garbage...pizza boxes, soda and beer boxes, etc....That was not a nice sight to come to early in the morning.
And the commission....after I pay those, I make less money with my summer rates then regular winter rates, thus I only have one room listed.
Ah, and the cancellations fee......I don't get a penny for cancellations outside the cancellation period. I charge $35.00 admin fee for undoing the booking in many ways, but trough B&B.com I can't collect that, but they get to keep their $25,00 for refunding the money to the guest.
There are many little items which I find I don't like as time goes by.
The good thing is that they finally merge webervations into one booking engine so we won't have to make x amounts of changes on different sites..

The last couple I had they thought we were a Hotel and treated us as such, including leaving masses of Garbage besides the garbage can in the kitchen...the usual garbage...pizza boxes, soda and beer boxes, etc....That was not a nice sight to come to early in the morning.
And the commission....after I pay those, I make less money with my summer rates then regular winter rates, thus I only have one room listed.
Ah, and the cancellations fee......I don't get a penny for cancellations outside the cancellation period. I charge $35.00 admin fee for undoing the booking in many ways, but trough B&B.com I can't collect that, but they get to keep their $25,00 for refunding the money to the guest.
There are many little items which I find I don't like as time goes by.
The good thing is that they finally merge webervations into one booking engine so we won't have to make x amounts of changes on different sites.

The trash sounds awful. I am sorry to hear that. I haven't had many like that but I do understand how you feel. I think everyone should just try the expedia system at least once and see how it works for them and if it is a headache then drop it. Same thing with a lot of directories like iloveinns.com....if you tried them out and didn't get anywhere with them then just drop them and forget about it.
.

Our caution about trying it is that they keep using you after you leave. Worse, they show you have no availability- which deters guests. To be honest, and I hate to say it, it's a scam. We don't like to think of a legimate company behaving this way, but if we were independently wealthy, we would have sued them (Expedia).
Although it only partly excusing the alliance, Bed & Breakfast .com has put some effort into correcting the problem, but it's apparently driven by pay per click stuff that turns it into some kind of bidding war. B&B.com gets a lot of credit for looking into it, but the fact is- Expedia is using us to make money and giving people false information about who we are and what are availability is. AND B&B.com is being treated like the sad sister.
Really - John B. is a great guy, but one guy isn't going to change this. When you go live with Expedia, you are dyed in the wool- and extraction is not possible. No one is telling you about the real consequences of doing this.
.

Our caution about trying it is that they keep using you after you leave. Worse, they show you have no availability- which deters guests. To be honest, and I hate to say it, it's a scam. We don't like to think of a legimate company behaving this way, but if we were independently wealthy, we would have sued them (Expedia).

We have heard similar horror stories. One B&B in California had a couple show up for a reservation during their busiest time - and they had no information at all about it.
They had nowhere to send these people who then wrote them up on TripAdvisor.
And many have said that it is impossible to get customer service for any problems.
I would not touch any of them with a ten foot pole.
Riki

 

[JunieBJones (JBJ)]

Listing on hotels.com is a royal headache. Like mentioned, you cancel and they continue to show you with ZERO availability. They have total control and you have zero. I would never list with any of those hotel websites again. They are not for B&B's. My experience. Unless you are in a major city then go for it, you have to operate differently than the rest of us anyway.

 

[Copperhead]

I am a member at the moment but not sure if I will stay a member.
I paid a pretty penny for membership and never received guests from that page. I always ask my guests how did they hear about us?
Then I signed up for online rez, listings with Hotels.com, etc....
So far I had 3 bookings with one cancellation.
What I did not like is the same as everyone else...no info on the guest.
The last couple I had they thought we were a Hotel and treated us as such, including leaving masses of Garbage besides the garbage can in the kitchen...the usual garbage...pizza boxes, soda and beer boxes, etc....That was not a nice sight to come to early in the morning.
And the commission....after I pay those, I make less money with my summer rates then regular winter rates, thus I only have one room listed.
Ah, and the cancellations fee......I don't get a penny for cancellations outside the cancellation period. I charge $35.00 admin fee for undoing the booking in many ways, but trough B&B.com I can't collect that, but they get to keep their $25,00 for refunding the money to the guest.
There are many little items which I find I don't like as time goes by.
The good thing is that they finally merge webervations into one booking engine so we won't have to make x amounts of changes on different sites..

The last couple I had they thought we were a Hotel and treated us as such, including leaving masses of Garbage besides the garbage can in the kitchen...the usual garbage...pizza boxes, soda and beer boxes, etc....That was not a nice sight to come to early in the morning.
And the commission....after I pay those, I make less money with my summer rates then regular winter rates, thus I only have one room listed.
Ah, and the cancellations fee......I don't get a penny for cancellations outside the cancellation period. I charge $35.00 admin fee for undoing the booking in many ways, but trough B&B.com I can't collect that, but they get to keep their $25,00 for refunding the money to the guest.
There are many little items which I find I don't like as time goes by.
The good thing is that they finally merge webervations into one booking engine so we won't have to make x amounts of changes on different sites.

The trash sounds awful. I am sorry to hear that. I haven't had many like that but I do understand how you feel. I think everyone should just try the expedia system at least once and see how it works for them and if it is a headache then drop it. Same thing with a lot of directories like iloveinns.com....if you tried them out and didn't get anywhere with them then just drop them and forget about it.
.

Our caution about trying it is that they keep using you after you leave. Worse, they show you have no availability- which deters guests. To be honest, and I hate to say it, it's a scam. We don't like to think of a legimate company behaving this way, but if we were independently wealthy, we would have sued them (Expedia).
Although it only partly excusing the alliance, Bed & Breakfast .com has put some effort into correcting the problem, but it's apparently driven by pay per click stuff that turns it into some kind of bidding war. B&B.com gets a lot of credit for looking into it, but the fact is- Expedia is using us to make money and giving people false information about who we are and what are availability is. AND B&B.com is being treated like the sad sister.
Really - John B. is a great guy, but one guy isn't going to change this. When you go live with Expedia, you are dyed in the wool- and extraction is not possible. No one is telling you about the real consequences of doing this.
.

Really - John B. is a great guy, but one guy isn't going to change this. When you go live with Expedia, you are dyed in the wool- and extraction is not possible. No one is telling you about the real consequences of doing this.

I had been listed on expedia when iloveinns had the contract instead of bandb. I really thought I would ever be removed until I spoke with someone at bandb.com. THEY worked with expedia to remove my listing and I did NOT sign up with this program with banb. If you are a member of banb, give them a call and see if they can help you in this regard. Thanks again to them!
My current online booking system does not list with Expedia but is on hotels, travelocity, and all the 'travel agent' databases.

 

[briarrosebb]

Listing on hotels.com is a royal headache. Like mentioned, you cancel and they continue to show you with ZERO availability. They have total control and you have zero. I would never list with any of those hotel websites again. They are not for B&B's. My experience. Unless you are in a major city then go for it, you have to operate differently than the rest of us anyway..

All,
We used BB.com's netrate program for Expedia & Hotels.com starting September last year. Over our low season (November through April) we did almost $8,000 in business. We think we can do $25,000 to $30,000 in our shoulder months and low season because we got a slow start last year. Obviously, adding Travelocity will help with that.
The things about this that innkeepers IMO do not weigh properly because they are difficult to estimate are:

• You control the inventory you put out there... you can NOT put it out there and you can take it back, too. You can put it out with one week before the arrival when you know you won't book up anyway. You can limit it to midweek. You can put out only certain tiers of rooms (whether it's most or least expensive).
• From BB.com's point of view there is leakage on these listings... prospective guests see your listing and then contact you directly where you owe no commission or netrate discount.
• The netrate guests may be a source of repeat business where the repeat business may not occur within the netrate channel.
• The guest may extend their stay and the extended portion may not be discounted.
• You can do like the hotels: raise your rack rates globally, or perhaps drop seasonal discounts, and have these rate actions cover part of your netrate cut.

There are problems with this business:

• not having good contact information
• having guests that are new to the B&B environment and don't have accurate expectations as to what they will receive

When you consider the "inestimable" benefits listed above and the incremental revenue that you receive during slow periods for inventory that you were not going to sell anyway, you gladly manage the problems with the business.
Our experience is that in a business that has such marginal income, the additional revenue is soooo welcome.

 

[Morticia]

Listing on hotels.com is a royal headache. Like mentioned, you cancel and they continue to show you with ZERO availability. They have total control and you have zero. I would never list with any of those hotel websites again. They are not for B&B's. My experience. Unless you are in a major city then go for it, you have to operate differently than the rest of us anyway..

All,
We used BB.com's netrate program for Expedia & Hotels.com starting September last year. Over our low season (November through April) we did almost $8,000 in business. We think we can do $25,000 to $30,000 in our shoulder months and low season because we got a slow start last year. Obviously, adding Travelocity will help with that.
The things about this that innkeepers IMO do not weigh properly because they are difficult to estimate are:

• You control the inventory you put out there... you can NOT put it out there and you can take it back, too. You can put it out with one week before the arrival when you know you won't book up anyway. You can limit it to midweek. You can put out only certain tiers of rooms (whether it's most or least expensive).
• From BB.com's point of view there is leakage on these listings... prospective guests see your listing and then contact you directly where you owe no commission or netrate discount.
• The netrate guests may be a source of repeat business where the repeat business may not occur within the netrate channel.
• The guest may extend their stay and the extended portion may not be discounted.
• You can do like the hotels: raise your rack rates globally, or perhaps drop seasonal discounts, and have these rate actions cover part of your netrate cut.

There are problems with this business:

• not having good contact information
• having guests that are new to the B&B environment and don't have accurate expectations as to what they will receive

When you consider the "inestimable" benefits listed above and the incremental revenue that you receive during slow periods for inventory that you were not going to sell anyway, you gladly manage the problems with the business.
Our experience is that in a business that has such marginal income, the additional revenue is soooo welcome.
.

How do you manage the expectations of the guest who was expecting a hotel and is now faced with a B&B? Altho, you do call yourself an 'eco-hotel' so it may be that you are more like a hotel than a B&B?
And, something that cannot be measured is how many guests you may also be missing who see your GDS listing as 'no availability' because you have taken all the discounting you can at the moment and have removed inventory. Does that guest know to look at your website or do they just move down the list to the next available room? Obviously, at this time of year you do not need this system to fill rooms.
The other difficulty I see with the program in the off or shoulder season is raising the rack rate to at least attempt to offset some of the commission. A 30% commission requires raising rates 43% to 'break even'. To offset some of the commission, you could raise rates 30%. But then you are faced with those guests looking at your own booking system and seeing sky high rates.
The one thing I have heard the most local people complain about is the inability to get your name off the system should you decide it is just not for you.
Your lisiting on hotels.com is a good one. It is very clear you are a B&B and what you allow and do not allow. And your website places better than any of the booking sites so you may get more business anyway without commissions.
An additional $8000 is good news. And expectations of substantially more business definitely means you have found a good system for your business. Possibly the city location? I'm not sure how well it would work for a 'country' location. But I could certainly ask the local hotels if they find more of their biz comes thru GDS than their own websites or global 800 #'s.

 

[briarrosebb]

Listing on hotels.com is a royal headache. Like mentioned, you cancel and they continue to show you with ZERO availability. They have total control and you have zero. I would never list with any of those hotel websites again. They are not for B&B's. My experience. Unless you are in a major city then go for it, you have to operate differently than the rest of us anyway..

All,
We used BB.com's netrate program for Expedia & Hotels.com starting September last year. Over our low season (November through April) we did almost $8,000 in business. We think we can do $25,000 to $30,000 in our shoulder months and low season because we got a slow start last year. Obviously, adding Travelocity will help with that.
The things about this that innkeepers IMO do not weigh properly because they are difficult to estimate are:

• You control the inventory you put out there... you can NOT put it out there and you can take it back, too. You can put it out with one week before the arrival when you know you won't book up anyway. You can limit it to midweek. You can put out only certain tiers of rooms (whether it's most or least expensive).
• From BB.com's point of view there is leakage on these listings... prospective guests see your listing and then contact you directly where you owe no commission or netrate discount.
• The netrate guests may be a source of repeat business where the repeat business may not occur within the netrate channel.
• The guest may extend their stay and the extended portion may not be discounted.
• You can do like the hotels: raise your rack rates globally, or perhaps drop seasonal discounts, and have these rate actions cover part of your netrate cut.

There are problems with this business:

• not having good contact information
• having guests that are new to the B&B environment and don't have accurate expectations as to what they will receive

When you consider the "inestimable" benefits listed above and the incremental revenue that you receive during slow periods for inventory that you were not going to sell anyway, you gladly manage the problems with the business.
Our experience is that in a business that has such marginal income, the additional revenue is soooo welcome.
.

How do you manage the expectations of the guest who was expecting a hotel and is now faced with a B&B? Altho, you do call yourself an 'eco-hotel' so it may be that you are more like a hotel than a B&B?
And, something that cannot be measured is how many guests you may also be missing who see your GDS listing as 'no availability' because you have taken all the discounting you can at the moment and have removed inventory. Does that guest know to look at your website or do they just move down the list to the next available room? Obviously, at this time of year you do not need this system to fill rooms.
The other difficulty I see with the program in the off or shoulder season is raising the rack rate to at least attempt to offset some of the commission. A 30% commission requires raising rates 43% to 'break even'. To offset some of the commission, you could raise rates 30%. But then you are faced with those guests looking at your own booking system and seeing sky high rates.
The one thing I have heard the most local people complain about is the inability to get your name off the system should you decide it is just not for you.
Your lisiting on hotels.com is a good one. It is very clear you are a B&B and what you allow and do not allow. And your website places better than any of the booking sites so you may get more business anyway without commissions.
An additional $8000 is good news. And expectations of substantially more business definitely means you have found a good system for your business. Possibly the city location? I'm not sure how well it would work for a 'country' location. But I could certainly ask the local hotels if they find more of their biz comes thru GDS than their own websites or global 800 #'s.
.

Hi, Bree...
We have bed and breakfast in our name and our picture clearly shows a home, not a hotel box. I've talked about the "eco-hotel" thing before: we intend to have hotel-like occupancy so we introduce hotel keywords into our marketing message even though this is confusing. As a consequence, we show up in organic searches for hotel keywords. We want that crossover business from guests whose first thought in lodging is "hotels", because we are going to get the B&B business anyway. We are the only lodging place with "bed and breakfast" in our name in our town. We do not have hotel features like meeting rooms, restaurant, room service, etc.
We don't see the "no availability" or getting off the system as a problem and we do experience some of this. It's not a problem in our view because if we are not on the page they are not going to see or know about us and not going to book anyway. At least they know there is a B&B there and people are smart enough to know that availability can be deceiving. As long as they get the spelling on the name, address and city right they can list us forever <g>.
I was not arguing to raise rates 30+ percent. I was arguing that you can soften the blow by raising rates a little or replacing published seasonal rates with situational discounting.
With regard to how do we deal with netrate guests who are disappointed because they didn't pay attention when booking to what they were booking...
It's just like dealing with any other disappointed guests:

• you clarify that indeed they were in error by looking at the listing
• you empathize with them
• you try to understand what their need is and how the need might be better met
• can we get you some ice tea and cookies?

 

[Copperhead]

Listing on hotels.com is a royal headache. Like mentioned, you cancel and they continue to show you with ZERO availability. They have total control and you have zero. I would never list with any of those hotel websites again. They are not for B&B's. My experience. Unless you are in a major city then go for it, you have to operate differently than the rest of us anyway..

All,
We used BB.com's netrate program for Expedia & Hotels.com starting September last year. Over our low season (November through April) we did almost $8,000 in business. We think we can do $25,000 to $30,000 in our shoulder months and low season because we got a slow start last year. Obviously, adding Travelocity will help with that.
The things about this that innkeepers IMO do not weigh properly because they are difficult to estimate are:

• You control the inventory you put out there... you can NOT put it out there and you can take it back, too. You can put it out with one week before the arrival when you know you won't book up anyway. You can limit it to midweek. You can put out only certain tiers of rooms (whether it's most or least expensive).
• From BB.com's point of view there is leakage on these listings... prospective guests see your listing and then contact you directly where you owe no commission or netrate discount.
• The netrate guests may be a source of repeat business where the repeat business may not occur within the netrate channel.
• The guest may extend their stay and the extended portion may not be discounted.
• You can do like the hotels: raise your rack rates globally, or perhaps drop seasonal discounts, and have these rate actions cover part of your netrate cut.

There are problems with this business:

• not having good contact information
• having guests that are new to the B&B environment and don't have accurate expectations as to what they will receive

When you consider the "inestimable" benefits listed above and the incremental revenue that you receive during slow periods for inventory that you were not going to sell anyway, you gladly manage the problems with the business.
Our experience is that in a business that has such marginal income, the additional revenue is soooo welcome.
.

How do you manage the expectations of the guest who was expecting a hotel and is now faced with a B&B? Altho, you do call yourself an 'eco-hotel' so it may be that you are more like a hotel than a B&B?
And, something that cannot be measured is how many guests you may also be missing who see your GDS listing as 'no availability' because you have taken all the discounting you can at the moment and have removed inventory. Does that guest know to look at your website or do they just move down the list to the next available room? Obviously, at this time of year you do not need this system to fill rooms.
The other difficulty I see with the program in the off or shoulder season is raising the rack rate to at least attempt to offset some of the commission. A 30% commission requires raising rates 43% to 'break even'. To offset some of the commission, you could raise rates 30%. But then you are faced with those guests looking at your own booking system and seeing sky high rates.
The one thing I have heard the most local people complain about is the inability to get your name off the system should you decide it is just not for you.
Your lisiting on hotels.com is a good one. It is very clear you are a B&B and what you allow and do not allow. And your website places better than any of the booking sites so you may get more business anyway without commissions.
An additional $8000 is good news. And expectations of substantially more business definitely means you have found a good system for your business. Possibly the city location? I'm not sure how well it would work for a 'country' location. But I could certainly ask the local hotels if they find more of their biz comes thru GDS than their own websites or global 800 #'s.
.

Hi, Bree...
We have bed and breakfast in our name and our picture clearly shows a home, not a hotel box. I've talked about the "eco-hotel" thing before: we intend to have hotel-like occupancy so we introduce hotel keywords into our marketing message even though this is confusing. As a consequence, we show up in organic searches for hotel keywords. We want that crossover business from guests whose first thought in lodging is "hotels", because we are going to get the B&B business anyway. We are the only lodging place with "bed and breakfast" in our name in our town. We do not have hotel features like meeting rooms, restaurant, room service, etc.
We don't see the "no availability" or getting off the system as a problem and we do experience some of this. It's not a problem in our view because if we are not on the page they are not going to see or know about us and not going to book anyway. At least they know there is a B&B there and people are smart enough to know that availability can be deceiving. As long as they get the spelling on the name, address and city right they can list us forever <g>.
I was not arguing to raise rates 30+ percent. I was arguing that you can soften the blow by raising rates a little or replacing published seasonal rates with situational discounting.
With regard to how do we deal with netrate guests who are disappointed because they didn't pay attention when booking to what they were booking...
It's just like dealing with any other disappointed guests:

• you clarify that indeed they were in error by looking at the listing
• you empathize with them
• you try to understand what their need is and how the need might be better met
• can we get you some ice tea and cookies?

.

Briarrose - For the most part I do agree with you regarding GDS. I just believe that it is good for some and not good for others...There are the good and the not so good points with this system and for some, the not so good out weighs the good...
I have been on the positive side of this subject for months now but have resigned myself to agree not to agree on this issue. When the topic does come up, I do list my 2 cents as there may be someone that will take note. And maybe someone will change their mind and give it a try... I will say it was due to the MANY postings here that convinced me to sign back up with bandb which I had been adamantly opposed to doing.
FYI - again for those who have not heard me,,, you CAN get the guest contact information!!! It does take a call (and sometimes a little time) but I have NEVER been refused this info when I asked - NEVER.

 

[egoodell]

Listing on hotels.com is a royal headache. Like mentioned, you cancel and they continue to show you with ZERO availability. They have total control and you have zero. I would never list with any of those hotel websites again. They are not for B&B's. My experience. Unless you are in a major city then go for it, you have to operate differently than the rest of us anyway..

All,
We used BB.com's netrate program for Expedia & Hotels.com starting September last year. Over our low season (November through April) we did almost $8,000 in business. We think we can do $25,000 to $30,000 in our shoulder months and low season because we got a slow start last year. Obviously, adding Travelocity will help with that.
The things about this that innkeepers IMO do not weigh properly because they are difficult to estimate are:

• You control the inventory you put out there... you can NOT put it out there and you can take it back, too. You can put it out with one week before the arrival when you know you won't book up anyway. You can limit it to midweek. You can put out only certain tiers of rooms (whether it's most or least expensive).
• From BB.com's point of view there is leakage on these listings... prospective guests see your listing and then contact you directly where you owe no commission or netrate discount.
• The netrate guests may be a source of repeat business where the repeat business may not occur within the netrate channel.
• The guest may extend their stay and the extended portion may not be discounted.
• You can do like the hotels: raise your rack rates globally, or perhaps drop seasonal discounts, and have these rate actions cover part of your netrate cut.

There are problems with this business:

• not having good contact information
• having guests that are new to the B&B environment and don't have accurate expectations as to what they will receive

When you consider the "inestimable" benefits listed above and the incremental revenue that you receive during slow periods for inventory that you were not going to sell anyway, you gladly manage the problems with the business.
Our experience is that in a business that has such marginal income, the additional revenue is soooo welcome.
.

How do you manage the expectations of the guest who was expecting a hotel and is now faced with a B&B? Altho, you do call yourself an 'eco-hotel' so it may be that you are more like a hotel than a B&B?
And, something that cannot be measured is how many guests you may also be missing who see your GDS listing as 'no availability' because you have taken all the discounting you can at the moment and have removed inventory. Does that guest know to look at your website or do they just move down the list to the next available room? Obviously, at this time of year you do not need this system to fill rooms.
The other difficulty I see with the program in the off or shoulder season is raising the rack rate to at least attempt to offset some of the commission. A 30% commission requires raising rates 43% to 'break even'. To offset some of the commission, you could raise rates 30%. But then you are faced with those guests looking at your own booking system and seeing sky high rates.
The one thing I have heard the most local people complain about is the inability to get your name off the system should you decide it is just not for you.
Your lisiting on hotels.com is a good one. It is very clear you are a B&B and what you allow and do not allow. And your website places better than any of the booking sites so you may get more business anyway without commissions.
An additional $8000 is good news. And expectations of substantially more business definitely means you have found a good system for your business. Possibly the city location? I'm not sure how well it would work for a 'country' location. But I could certainly ask the local hotels if they find more of their biz comes thru GDS than their own websites or global 800 #'s.
.

Hi, Bree...
We have bed and breakfast in our name and our picture clearly shows a home, not a hotel box. I've talked about the "eco-hotel" thing before: we intend to have hotel-like occupancy so we introduce hotel keywords into our marketing message even though this is confusing. As a consequence, we show up in organic searches for hotel keywords. We want that crossover business from guests whose first thought in lodging is "hotels", because we are going to get the B&B business anyway. We are the only lodging place with "bed and breakfast" in our name in our town. We do not have hotel features like meeting rooms, restaurant, room service, etc.
We don't see the "no availability" or getting off the system as a problem and we do experience some of this. It's not a problem in our view because if we are not on the page they are not going to see or know about us and not going to book anyway. At least they know there is a B&B there and people are smart enough to know that availability can be deceiving. As long as they get the spelling on the name, address and city right they can list us forever <g>.
I was not arguing to raise rates 30+ percent. I was arguing that you can soften the blow by raising rates a little or replacing published seasonal rates with situational discounting.
With regard to how do we deal with netrate guests who are disappointed because they didn't pay attention when booking to what they were booking...
It's just like dealing with any other disappointed guests:

• you clarify that indeed they were in error by looking at the listing
• you empathize with them
• you try to understand what their need is and how the need might be better met
• can we get you some ice tea and cookies?

.

With regard to how do we deal with netrate guests who are disappointed because they didn't pay attention when booking to what they were booking...
It's just like dealing with any other disappointed guests:

• you clarify that indeed they were in error by looking at the listing
• you empathize with them
• you try to understand what their need is and how the need might be better met
• can we get you some ice tea and cookies?

I would not want to have to deal with this disappointment on a regular basis. Period.I can just imagine my TripAdvisor reviews. Don't have the time to have guests arriving thinking they are getting a hotel. They are the ones that make lousey B&B guests.
I agree these kind of booking sites are probably great for cities with lots of competition. Not for me in the Virginia Wine Country. Plus, I have heard way to many complaints.
Riki

 

[ila]

Hi guys,
I just have a question. Can u explain me how the posting process works when I put ads on websites like Expedia, eBooking..?How much does it cost? Is the fee calculated on a fix amount or on percentage??
Thank u for your advices.
Ila

 

[scrambled_eggs]

Hi guys,
I just have a question. Can u explain me how the posting process works when I put ads on websites like Expedia, eBooking..?How much does it cost? Is the fee calculated on a fix amount or on percentage??
Thank u for your advices.
Ila.

Hi Ila...you would have to post them through the bedandbreakfast.com system and they take out a percentage. If I was listing a room for $200 on expedia it would show up to any potential guest at that rate but then the amount of money I would get would be about $150 and the rest would go to expedia or bedandbreakfast.com or who ever you are listing with. I havn't listed anything with them at all this year so I can't remember the exact percentage amount they are taking out.

 

[ila]

Hi guys,
I just have a question. Can u explain me how the posting process works when I put ads on websites like Expedia, eBooking..?How much does it cost? Is the fee calculated on a fix amount or on percentage??
Thank u for your advices.
Ila.

Hi Ila...you would have to post them through the bedandbreakfast.com system and they take out a percentage. If I was listing a room for $200 on expedia it would show up to any potential guest at that rate but then the amount of money I would get would be about $150 and the rest would go to expedia or bedandbreakfast.com or who ever you are listing with. I havn't listed anything with them at all this year so I can't remember the exact percentage amount they are taking out.
.

That is really a lot!!! Mmm.. I m gonna figure out something else..
Thank u for the info.. ;-)

 

[user 26]

hi ila ... are you new to the forum?

i found that the percentage we would have to pay was very high so it did not seem feasible for us.

 

[wendydk]

I have exposure on Expedia, Hotels and Travelocity through the bb.com ORP. I love the program and feel that the exposure and the resulting off-program reservations make it more than worth the cost.
For over a year, we were the only ones participating in the program in our little county group. I see now that the two "biggest marketers" in the group have also followed suit. Could it be because our occupancy was far higher than theirs for the last 12 months, and especially this summer? Could be!

 

[Baygirl]

I signed up for it and plan to utilize it in our off season. The percentage is high, but I'm going to try it anyway. For us it works out to be more than what we're getting with state rates and I'm hoping it helps build up our occupancy in the off season.
You can control how many rooms you want on there and when.

 

[wendydk]

I signed up for it and plan to utilize it in our off season. The percentage is high, but I'm going to try it anyway. For us it works out to be more than what we're getting with state rates and I'm hoping it helps build up our occupancy in the off season.
You can control how many rooms you want on there and when..

You can also get a lower percentage taken if you don't hold back your inventory. Until I merged my webervations and bb.com inventory management, I had a two night minimum stay for the bb.com reservations, all the time and three nights during the summer. This way I got the exposure and traffic to our website without having to pay the big percentage.
I see bb.com is having free webinars in beginning and advanced online reservations, and I am going to try to attend a couple, just to see what I might be missing and how I could better use the program to promote the Inn.
There is, in fact one today at 1pm....wonder if I have time to get it on that.
https://secure.bedandbreakfast.com/WebinarRegistration.aspx

 

[Don Draper]

I signed up for it and plan to utilize it in our off season. The percentage is high, but I'm going to try it anyway. For us it works out to be more than what we're getting with state rates and I'm hoping it helps build up our occupancy in the off season.
You can control how many rooms you want on there and when..

You can also get a lower percentage taken if you don't hold back your inventory. Until I merged my webervations and bb.com inventory management, I had a two night minimum stay for the bb.com reservations, all the time and three nights during the summer. This way I got the exposure and traffic to our website without having to pay the big percentage.
I see bb.com is having free webinars in beginning and advanced online reservations, and I am going to try to attend a couple, just to see what I might be missing and how I could better use the program to promote the Inn.
There is, in fact one today at 1pm....wonder if I have time to get it on that.
https://secure.bedandbreakfast.com/WebinarRegistration.aspx
.

I'm wondering if this would work for us in our off-season. We usually discount our rates by about 20% in the off-season. I guess I would still need to post them at the discounted rate, and then let bb.com take their 20% in addition to that?

 

[wendydk]

I signed up for it and plan to utilize it in our off season. The percentage is high, but I'm going to try it anyway. For us it works out to be more than what we're getting with state rates and I'm hoping it helps build up our occupancy in the off season.
You can control how many rooms you want on there and when..

You can also get a lower percentage taken if you don't hold back your inventory. Until I merged my webervations and bb.com inventory management, I had a two night minimum stay for the bb.com reservations, all the time and three nights during the summer. This way I got the exposure and traffic to our website without having to pay the big percentage.
I see bb.com is having free webinars in beginning and advanced online reservations, and I am going to try to attend a couple, just to see what I might be missing and how I could better use the program to promote the Inn.
There is, in fact one today at 1pm....wonder if I have time to get it on that.
https://secure.bedandbreakfast.com/WebinarRegistration.aspx
.

I'm wondering if this would work for us in our off-season. We usually discount our rates by about 20% in the off-season. I guess I would still need to post them at the discounted rate, and then let bb.com take their 20% in addition to that?
.

No, post them at rack rate on the bb.com system. I never discounted them on there.

 

[Baygirl]

I signed up for it and plan to utilize it in our off season. The percentage is high, but I'm going to try it anyway. For us it works out to be more than what we're getting with state rates and I'm hoping it helps build up our occupancy in the off season.
You can control how many rooms you want on there and when..

You can also get a lower percentage taken if you don't hold back your inventory. Until I merged my webervations and bb.com inventory management, I had a two night minimum stay for the bb.com reservations, all the time and three nights during the summer. This way I got the exposure and traffic to our website without having to pay the big percentage.
I see bb.com is having free webinars in beginning and advanced online reservations, and I am going to try to attend a couple, just to see what I might be missing and how I could better use the program to promote the Inn.
There is, in fact one today at 1pm....wonder if I have time to get it on that.
https://secure.bedandbreakfast.com/WebinarRegistration.aspx
.

I'm wondering if this would work for us in our off-season. We usually discount our rates by about 20% in the off-season. I guess I would still need to post them at the discounted rate, and then let bb.com take their 20% in addition to that?
.

No, post them at rack rate on the bb.com system. I never discounted them on there.
.

I never discount them on bb.com either so the percentage they take is off the full rate.

 

[Mary at Bridgewater Inn and Cottage]

Too tiny and too cheap (that doesnt sound right

) I do not do any discounts from outside source.Got to go....Mary in Bridgewater, Va.

 

[JBanczak]

I signed up for it and plan to utilize it in our off season. The percentage is high, but I'm going to try it anyway. For us it works out to be more than what we're getting with state rates and I'm hoping it helps build up our occupancy in the off season.
You can control how many rooms you want on there and when..

You can also get a lower percentage taken if you don't hold back your inventory. Until I merged my webervations and bb.com inventory management, I had a two night minimum stay for the bb.com reservations, all the time and three nights during the summer. This way I got the exposure and traffic to our website without having to pay the big percentage.
I see bb.com is having free webinars in beginning and advanced online reservations, and I am going to try to attend a couple, just to see what I might be missing and how I could better use the program to promote the Inn.
There is, in fact one today at 1pm....wonder if I have time to get it on that.
https://secure.bedandbreakfast.com/WebinarRegistration.aspx
.

I'm wondering if this would work for us in our off-season. We usually discount our rates by about 20% in the off-season. I guess I would still need to post them at the discounted rate, and then let bb.com take their 20% in addition to that?
.

I'm wondering if this would work for us in our off-season. We usually discount our rates by about 20% in the off-season. I guess I would still need to post them at the discounted rate, and then let bb.com take their 20% in addition to that?

Yes, this is how it works. We do not request to sell a rate to a consumer that is lower than what you are offering over the phone or on your website, however, we do require that we are able to display the same final rate. We'd look pretty foolish to consumers if we always had rack only rates, and the property websites had lower rates.
So yes - we do require that if you discount a rate to sell on your own, you make that available in our system. That does not apply to AAA rates or any "private rate" that you may have (corporate, etc.) We clearly cannot keep tabs on every single property in the system, but we do a fair amount of rate checking to make sure this is happening. We also make this very clear in our contracts and in our communication and we expect that innkeepers deal with us in an honest way. Whether you think the commission is worth it or not is ultimately up to each property, but for those that do participate we expect them to honor the agreement.